Ducati Qatar test notes 2009-03-01

DESERT STORM AS RAIN HITS QATAR: NICKY HAYDEN QUICKEST AS STONER SITS IT OUT
The first day of a three-day test for the Ducati Marlboro Team got underway
after a minor setback in Losail, where the desert landscape was hit by rain!
With a...

The first day of a three-day test for the Ducati Marlboro Team got underway
after a minor setback in Losail, where the desert landscape was hit by rain!
With a scheduled start of 6pm local time, the session was interrupted almost
immediately by a red flag after a light downpour, which lasted barely ten
minutes. Several riders, Nicky Hayden included, got a handful of laps in
before returning to join the rest of the riders watching the weather from
pit-lane.

At around 9pm a group of rider representatives, including Stoner and Rossi,
convened with the circuit officials to discuss the state of the track not
only because of the rain but also because of the sand that had blown onto
the surface beforehand. With the section between turns 11 and 12 still damp,
the riders continued to wait and at around 10:30pm track action resumed,
although Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Capirossi and Stoner decided to wait for
better conditions tomorrow.

Nicky Hayden completed a total of 31 laps, including the fastest of the day.
As usual the American was prepared to make the best of the conditions,
testing some electronic updates and a new fork.

"I haven't seen rain in Qatar in all my life and I never thought I would!
But today we'd barely got the bike on track and it started to come down. We
had to spend a long time in the garage because even though a part of the
track had dried out there was a section that stayed damp for a while. The
track conditions were tricky and there wasn't much feedback, which meant we
couldn't do the work we had planned. We've got a few different things to try
so hopefully the weather is better tomorrow so we can get some work done."